Contest application facilitating social connections

ABSTRACT

Technologies for facilitating online connections through the use of a web-based application that enables users to participate in online contests and receive rewards based on the number of established connections. For example, an application hosted on a server enables a sponsoring entity to create an online contest. The application facilitates a user, who remotely interfaces therewith utilizing a computing device to participate in the contest by creating an advocate unique to the user, the contest, and the sponsoring entity. The application also allows the user to share the advocate with other online users such that the other online users join the advocate and establish connections with the sponsoring entity. The application determines a winner of the contest based on the number of connections established with the sponsoring entity for each advocate.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims priority to U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 61/540,369, filed on Sep. 28, 2011, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.

BACKGROUND

The growth and accessibility of data networks and services via the Internet and the availability of personal electronic devices such as smartphones have facilitated the rapid growth of digitally-mediated communications and services. Social networking sites such as Facebook® and Twitter® have become increasingly popular and allow users to connect with one another and to share information.

SUMMARY

Various applications exist for facilitating online contests via social media networks and web-based services. These applications typically require users who want to participate in a contest to enter submissions such as photos, links, essays, and the like. The applications may use panels of experts or vote tallies to judge the submissions and determine winners.

Such applications may be limited by the types of submissions and the judging process. The application may also be limited by the services that the applications provide. For instance, the applications may not encourage contestants to share information about the contest with other users and may not allow for determination and rewarding of winners based on the shared information.

In various embodiments, systems, methods, and computer readable media are disclosed for facilitating online connections, wherein users can execute an application to create and share links and to receive services associated therewith. More particularly, techniques are described for facilitating online contests and determining winners thereof.

In an embodiment, an application is configured to facilitate contests and promote entities associated with the contests. The configuration comprises various components including a sponsoring entity, a contest, a contestant account, a referral account, a recruiter account, and an advocate. The application also enables various functionalities including the ability to establish connections and links between the components, tally the number of connections and links, and provide services based one of a or all of the tallied numbers.

In an embodiment, the application assigns an advocate to a contestant. The advocate represents the contestant's entry into the contest and the recruitment effort within that contest. When the contestant refers another user to join the advocate, the application tracks the referral and awards a point to the advocate as part of the contestant's tally. This tracking provides data to the contestant about his or her current position in the contest and encourages additional contestant's activity in the application. The application notifies the contestant of his or her tally ranking and encourages the contestant to share the advocate with other users in order to maintain or improve his or her position in the contest. The application also processes the tally of recruits to determine the winner of the contest. The number of winners and prizes per tally ranking is derived from the rules of the contest. As such, instead of using a panel of experts or a vote tally to determine a winner, the application judges a winner based on the contestant's ability to recruit new users to join the contestant's advocate.

The foregoing summary is illustrative only and is not intended to be in any way limiting. In addition to the illustrative aspects, embodiments, and features described above, further aspects, embodiments, and features will become apparent by reference to the drawings and the following detailed description.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The systems, methods, and computer media for facilitating online connections in accordance with this specification are further described with reference to the accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 depicts an example screen shot of an application administrator home page.

FIGS. 2A, 2B, and 2C depict example screen shots of a new/edit contest page.

FIG. 3 depicts an example screen shot of an analytics page.

FIG. 4 depicts an example screen shot of a contest index page.

FIG. 5 depicts an example screen shot of a contest index page hosted on a social media website.

FIG. 6 depicts an example screen shot of an application start page.

FIG. 7 depicts an example screen shot of the application start page hosted on the social media website.

FIG. 8 depicts an example screen shot of a social media website's request for permission prompt.

FIG. 9 depicts an example screen shot of a social media website's post to a social network prompt.

FIG. 10 depicts an example screen shot of a social media website's news feed prompt.

FIG. 11 depicts an example screen shot of a social media website's invite friends prompt.

FIGS. 12A and 12B depict example screen shots of an application share page.

FIG. 13 depicts an example screen shot of an application share page in a social media website tab.

FIG. 14 depicts an example screen shot of a social media website's share box.

FIG. 15 depicts an example screen shot of an email exchange server's share box.

FIG. 16 depicts an example screen shot of an email sent to an email account via the email exchange server's share box.

FIG. 17 depicts an example screen shot of an application referral page.

FIG. 18 depicts an example screen shot of an application referral page's join referring a user to a contest button.

FIG. 19 depicts an example screen shot of an application index page.

FIG. 20 depicts an example screen shot of an application index page displaying a contest section particular to a contestant.

FIG. 21 depicts an example screen shot of a contest pop-up rules box.

FIG. 22 depicts an example screen shot of a contest pop-up terms and conditions box.

FIG. 23 depicts an example screen shot of a share page ranking.

FIG. 24 depicts an example screen shot of a referral account start page.

FIG. 25 depicts an example flow diagram illustrating an administrative functional flow in accordance to various embodiments of the present disclosure.

FIG. 26 depicts an example flow diagram illustrating a canvas flow in accordance to various embodiments of the present disclosure.

FIG. 27 depicts an example flow diagram illustrating a login flow in accordance to various embodiments of the present disclosure.

FIG. 28 depicts an example flow diagram illustrating a contestant account flow in accordance to various embodiments of the present disclosure.

FIG. 29 depicts an example flow diagram illustrating a referral account flow in accordance to various embodiments of the present disclosure.

FIG. 30 depicts an example representation of an email sent by an application to advertise or promote contests.

FIG. 31 depicts an example computing system wherein aspects of the present disclosure can be implemented.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF ILLUSTRATIVE EMBODIMENTS

Specific details are set forth in the following description and figures to provide a thorough understanding of various embodiments of the disclosure. In the drawings, similar symbols identify similar components, unless context dictates otherwise. Certain well-known technology details, such as computing and software technologies, are not set forth in the following description to avoid unnecessarily obscuring the various embodiments. Those of ordinary skill in the relevant art will understand that they can practice other embodiments of the disclosure without departing from the scope of the subject matter presented herein. Finally, the various techniques described herein can be implemented in hardware, software, or a combination thereof.

One skilled in the art will appreciate that, for this and other operational procedures and methods disclosed herein, the operations and methods may be implemented in a different order. Furthermore, the described operations are only provided as examples, and some operations may be optional, combined into fewer operations, or expanded into additional operations. One skilled in the art will also appreciate that certain well-known technology details regarding functions of the application are not set forth herein to avoid unnecessarily obscuring the various embodiments. Although various embodiments and technologies thereof are described herein utilizing particular server social media platforms, one skilled in the art will understand that he or she can practice other embodiments of the disclosure without departing from the scope of the subject matter presented herein.

Various embodiments describe herein a user, a company, a sponsoring entity, a client, an administrator, a sub-administrator, a contestant, a referral user, a non-referral user, a recruit, and a recruiter interfacing with an application. Although the terms user, company, sponsoring entity, client, administrator, sub-administrator, contestant, referral user, non-referral user, recruit, and recruiter include actual persons or entities that interface with the application using a user interface executing on a computing device, the terms should not be limited as such. One skilled in the art will appreciate that, for example based on context, the term user includes a user account, the term company includes a company account, the term sponsoring entity includes a sponsoring entity account, the term client includes a client account, the term administrator includes an administrator account, the term sub-administrator includes a sub-administrator account, the term contestant includes a contestant account, the term referral user includes a referral account, the term non-referral user includes a non-referral account, the term recruit includes a recruit account, the term recruiter includes a recruiter account. Any of the accounts can be associated with the application, a social media network, a web hosting server, and/or any third party web-based application.

In an embodiment, an application is configured to facilitate online contests and promote sponsoring entities. An example application is the BandWagon® application, referred to herein as the “BW App.” The application is hosted on a remote server and comprises an interface to a computing device associated with a user. The interface thereto can be executed locally on the computing device or remotely on a third party server. The user comprises any of a company, a client, a sponsoring entity, an administrator, a sub-administrator, a contestant, a referral user, a non-referral user, a recruit, and a recruiter. The interface to the application may vary based at least on the user type as will be described below.

The computing device is connected to the server over a communication network, such as an internet protocol (IP) based network. The computing device is configured to execute the user interface comprising, for example, a web browser linked to the application. Access to and execution of the application can be facilitated by a third party, such as a social media website, an e-mail server, or a web-hosting application server. For instance, the computing device may download instructions that, when executed on the computing device, cause the computing device to run a user interface to the application. The instructions comprise software modules downloadable from the server where the application resides or from a third party server such as the App Store® or Google Play®. In a further embodiment, the user interface can be embedded or integrated within a third party web-page, such as a page within a social media website such as Facebook® or Twitter®.

In an embodiment, the application is implemented as software and is hosted on a server such as an Amazon® server. The application's user interface is embedded within a page of a social media website such as Facebook®. To set-up the interface, Facebook® provides an assigned space, such as http://apps.facebook.com/exampleassignedspace, in which Facebook® has an inner frame that points to the hosting Amazon® server. The application may live on one server and may also be duplicated across multiple servers according to demand. The application is accessed via a secure shell (SSH) or a secure file transfer protocol (FTP).

The application relies on data passed by Facebook® through the application iframe, mainly to authenticate a user. In order for the application to function as a general web application or in any other technology environment, the authentication process is rewritten to bring the application outside of the Facebook® iframe. The authentication process depends on the environment, network, or technology from which the application is accessed.

The application may user a MySQL database server on the Amazon® relational database service platform. The data is stored in the MySQL database. An advocate created by a contestant has its own entry in a database table. User accounts, contest settings, application entries, applications members, and various metrics are also stored in database tables.

A user can access the application from various websites on the internet or download the software and use it on a computer or a mobile device. Companies may administer contests hosted by the application in order to reach new potential customers. The application allows the companies to create a new line of communication between themselves and new potential customers. The new lines of communication include acquiring email addresses or phone numbers of the potential customers or connecting with them via social media networks such as Facebook® and Twitter®. Contestants compete in recruiting the largest number of new people to join their advocates. The contestant(s) that recruits the largest number of new people wins designated prizes. The application tracks the number of new recruits that join another contestant and the number of new connections—or lines of communication—that are created between the sponsoring company and the contestants.

In the context of a social media network such as Facebook®, the application's ability to track connections is referred to as “like” tracking. The application records two types of “likes:” likes that are indicated by the button within the application frame and likes that are indicated by the button on a social media network page outside the application tab frame. The application determines when a user clicks the like button within the application frame based on a social media network's callback function, which is called when a user clicks any like button. On a social media network page tab, a user can click the like button on the social media network page outside the application frame. The application tracks the likes by, for example, recording the loads of the application tab along with the number of page likes at the time of the loads. If the number of page likes increments between two loads of the tab, and if those two loads have the same referrer or user, the application assumes that those two loads are the same user, and counts that as a like.

Contestants participate in the contest by opening the application in any accessible form—whether on the web, on a computer, or on a mobile device. If accessed on the web, contestants navigate to the application's website via the Internet, as shown in FIG. 19, or to the website of the company sponsoring a contest, as shown in FIG. 5. Contestants may also receive emails advertising a contest and directing them to the application, as shown in FIG. 30. The application provides instructions on how a contestant can enter and compete in each contest. The contestant completes several steps, including but not limited to, accepting the contests rules and terms and conditions, starting an advocate, and sharing the contest and advocating with friends, as shown in FIGS. 6, 12A, and 12B. The contestant is able to check back in to the application to invite more friends and to keep track of his or her place in the contest.

In an embodiment, the application facilitates a connection between a sponsoring entity and a contest such that the sponsoring entity sponsors the contest. The application also enables a connection between a contestant account and the sponsoring entity such that a contestant associated with the contestant account accesses the contest. Once a contestant-contest connection is established, the application associates a first advocate with the contestant account such that the first advocate is specific to the contestant-contest connection. The first advocate may be a web link unique to the contestant-contest connection. Thereafter, the application allows the contestant to recruit a referral user associated with a referral account by sharing a link that directs the referral user to a page associated with the first advocate. In turn, the application creates a connection between the referral account and the first advocate and a connection between the referral account and the sponsoring entity when the referral user clicks or accesses the link. The application also associates the referral user with a recruiter account when the referral user initiates a second advocate for the contest. The application creates a connection between the referral account and the recruiter account and a connection between the recruiter account and the first advocate. The application awards a point, score, or token to the contestant account based on the created connections.

The application determines, for a contest, an advocate that comprises the largest number of connections, declares a contestant account associated with the advocate as a winner of the contest, and provides services thereto based at least on rules associated with the contest. The services include, for example, a monetary reward, a coupon, or a prize. Similarly, the application ranks and rewards the contestant accounts based on the number of connections associated with the respective advocates. For example, the application may provide a three-tier prize system wherein a winner qualifies for a grand prize, a contestant account ranked within a predetermined range qualifies for a secondary prize, and all contestant accounts qualify for a general prize. The general prize includes, for example, links to coupons associated with the sponsoring entity. The application can also provide the coupon links to the referral accounts. The application may declare winners based on the ranks of the contestants.

The application also tracks and records various information associated with the connections and links. The information comprises connections resulting from a particular contest or from any group of contests. The information also comprises advocates, shared links, traffic to the application from the links, contest page views associated with the particular contest or the group of contests, and outgoing traffic from the application to external sites of sponsoring entities. The application processes the information to provide additional services to the contestant accounts, the referral accounts, the sponsoring entities, or third parties. The additional services include, for example, analytics and billing.

In an embodiment, a sponsoring entity accesses the application and creates a contest. The application allows the sponsoring entity to set contest rules according to policies and procedures of the application. The rules define parameters for a contestant's, referral user's, non-referral user's, recruit's, or recruiter's participation in the contest. The rules include, for example, the contest expiration date, the number of participants, the number of times a participant can participate in the contest, prizes, data collection, etc.

To participate as a contestant, the user launches the user interface on the computing device and connects to the application as shown in FIGS. 4, 5, and 19. The application associates the user with a contestant account, which enables the user to connect to a contest and a sponsoring entity thereof. The user executes a designated action, such as a click on a contest-specific button within the user interface as shown in FIGS. 6 and 7. In turn, the application establishes a connection between the contestant account and the contest. When establishing the connection, the application authenticates the contestant account. The authentication comprises registering a new contestant or an account thereof, confirming the status of an existing contestant or an account thereof, agreeing to contest rules, terms, and conditions as shown in FIGS. 6, 8, 21, and 22, and preventing fraud as will be described below. The application also assigns a contest-specific advocate to the contestant account. The advocate assignment creates an advocate account in a database associated with the application and used to tally the number of referrals. The referrals comprise users or accounts thereof that the contestant recruits to join the advocate. A referral joins the advocate when, for example, he or she clicks on the advocate.

The application displays the advocate to a user as a graphic object, a web link, or a web page which are connected to the advocate account. To recruit referral users, the contestant shares the advocate with the referral users. The application facilitates the sharing of the advocate by, for example, enabling the contestant to post the graphic object within a social media web page associated with the contestant as shown in FIGS. 9-10, wherein the posting can be directed to a specific number of referral users as shown in FIG. 11. The application also facilitates the sharing of the advocate by, for example, broadcasting the web-link through a social media website as shown in FIG. 14 or through email as shown in FIGS. 15 and 16. In yet another example, the application facilitates the sharing of the advocate by posting the advocate as a web page accessible to the referrals as shown in FIGS. 12A, 12B, and 13.

To participate as a referral user, the referral user launches a user interface on a computing device, connects to the application, and selects the advocate specific to the contestant-contest. The application facilitates the selection by displaying, for example, the advocate and/or a link thereto to the referral user via the user interface as shown in FIGS. 10, 16, and 17. The application establishes a referral account associated with the referral user and a connection between the referral account and an account associated with the sponsoring entity of the contest associated with the advocate. The referral user joins the advocate by, for example, clicking on the displayed link as shown in FIG. 18. Once a referral joins the advocate, the application updates the advocate account to add the referral user to the current referrals. As such, the application is able to count in real time the number of referrals associated with an advocate. When a contestant is running multiple advocates or when a contest is associated with multiple contestants and because an advocate is specific to a contestant and a contest, the application is able to tally in real time the number of referrals for each contest per contestant and the number of referrals for each contestant per contest.

When a referral user joins an advocate, the application allows the referral user to join other advocates as shown in FIG. 19. The application also allows the referral user to start his or her own advocate associated with the same contest. In other words, the application gives the referral user an option to become a contestant, wherein the referral user can connect to the contest, create an advocate, and share the advocate with other referral users in a similar manner as described herein above. For example, the application can display a link to the referral user to start an advocate as shown in FIG. 19. By clicking on the displayed link, the referral user becomes a contestant, wherein the application identifies the referral user as a recruiter and generates a corresponding recruiter account and a connection therewith to the contest. In another example, the application updates the referral account to a recruiter account. When the application identifies a user as a recruiter, the application provides functionalities thereto similar to the ones provided to a contestant. For example, the application authenticates the recruiter, assigns an advocate specific to the recruiter and the contest, creates a corresponding advocate account in the database associated with the application, shares the advocate with other referral users, and tallies the number of referrals that join the advocate.

The contest may be associated with an expiration time prior to which the contest is active. The application allows a contestant to join the contest and to repeatedly share the corresponding advocate with previous or new referral users as described above within the active time of the contest. The application also allows, within the active time, a referral user to join the advocate and to become a recruiter as described above. The application limits a contestant from creating more than one advocate associated with the contest and limits a referral user from repeatedly joining a same advocate and repeatedly becoming a corresponding recruiter. Once expired, the application limits further actions initiated by contestants, referral users, or recruiters. The application also tallies the total number of referrals per contestant and declares various contest winners and prizes based on the tallied numbers and predefined criteria.

In an embodiment, the application prohibits a first contestant associated with a first advocate from joining the first advocate as a referral user. The application also allows the first contestant to join, as a referral user or a recruiter, a second advocate of a second contestant for the same contest. For example, the first contestant may receive a link to the second advocate with a description to join the second advocate as a referral user. In such a scenario, the application allows the first contestant to join the second advocate through a link associated with the first advocate instead of joining the second advocate following the steps described herein above for a referral user.

In another embodiment, the first contestant can share his or her advocate with a referral user. When the referral user joins the advocate, the application prompts the referral user to start his or her own advocate for the same contest. If the referral user does so, the referral user becomes a second contestant and can share his or her advocate with other referral users. The application detects when the second contestant shares his or her advocate with the first contestant. For example, the application can track and determine that the second contestant created his or her advocate based on the advocate received from the first contestant. In such a scenario, the application prohibits the first contestant from joining the advocate of the second contestant for that same contest. In other words, the application can be configured to encourage users to create connections for new contests and share advocates with new users.

The application can also be configured to track the history of a contestant, a referral user, and a recruiter. The tracked history includes, for example, established connections and joined links associated with the respective user accounts. The application processes the tracked history for analytic purposes and for encouraging user activities in the application. In an embodiment, the application maintains data that provide various statistics or analytics about the contests, the sponsoring entities, the users, the advocates, the connections, the shares, and the links as shown in FIG. 3. For example, for a contest, the application displays an analytics page that lists the total number of red flags associated with an advocate, the total number of red-flagged users, and the total number of red-flagged connections in the contest as shown in FIG. 3. The use of a red flag indicates a potential fraudulent activity as will be described below. The application also has the authority to disqualify any user who is deemed to be cheating and to remove the corresponding advocate. In a further embodiment, the application facilitates the distribution of prizes by signed and certified mail ensuring that only users using a proper legal documented name for their social media accounts are able to receive prizes. These auditing measures protect the businesses and billing models against duplicate connections and/or fraudulent activities that may skew billing and/or analytics of a contest.

In an embodiment, the application comprises fraud detection capabilities that alert an administrator when a user appears to be fraudulently participating in a contest. For example, the application detects when a user appears to be using duplicate or false user accounts on a social media network in order to increase the user's tally. While users can typically create multiple social media user accounts, contest rules often only allow a contestant to participate in a contest with one social media user account. When a new contestant registers to use the application, the contestant grants the application special permissions to analyze the contestant's profile on the social media network in which the contest is associated. If a contestant and/or a referral user has less than a set number of contacts associated with the corresponding social media user account, the application deems that account to be potentially fraudulent. The required number of contacts is set in the application administration. The application associates a red flag with a potentially fraudulent user account.

In an embodiment, the application can be described in terms of three interfaces: an administrative interface, an advocate interface, and a recruit interface. The administrative interface is only visible to those with special permissions or administrators. The administrative interface allows contests to be created, edited, and monitored. This interface includes a screen where an administrator enters data necessary to start a new contest as shown in FIGS. 2A, 2B, and 2C. The administrative interface is also used to edit the details of a contest. This interface further provides the administrators with access to analytic data for each of the contests and allows the administrators to monitor performance, user information, warnings of possible user fraud, and/or any other information being tracked by the application as shown in FIG. 3. The administrative interface is set-up on a tiered authorization and access system. The main administrator gives access to different sub-administrators that access segments of this interface and data and functions thereof. For example, a sponsoring entity may be given access to an analytics data page limited to the particular contests in which the sponsoring entity is associated and has permission to view.

The advocate interface allows users, such as contestants, to create their own advocate and monitor their rankings in a contest relative to other users participating in the same contest. The advocate interface includes an application index page that allows a user to see the available contests including the contests in which the user is or is not participating as shown in FIG. 19. The advocate interface allows a user to enter a specific contest from the contest index page as shown in FIG. 4. The contest index page can also be accessed from the sponsoring entity's social media network page, if the user started a contest on this page or upon agreement with the client as shown in FIG. 5. Additionally, the user may be directed to the contest index page via email or other announcements made by the company administering the application as shown in FIG. 30. The advocate interface also includes a share page that allows users to view their rankings in a particular contest as well as links and tools that help them share advocates as shown in FIGS. 12A and 12B. The advocate interface also provides specific prompts that help the user share his or her advocate as shown in FIGS. 12B, 14, and 15.

The recruit interface provides an interface to users that join an advocate. Referrals are associated with users that have created and shared an advocate. A referral user is given the opportunity to join the advocate. When the referral user makes a connection with the sponsoring entity associated with the contest, the application counts the referral user as a member or tally of the contestant's advocate. When the referral user completes the action of joining the advocate as shown in FIGS. 17 and 18, the application prompts the referral user to start his or her own advocate and allows the referral user to enter the advocate interface described herein.

The following description of the application flow describes activities of users within the application when tracking and creating connections for a sponsoring entity on a social media network platform such as the Facebook® platform. This description is provided for the purpose of illustrating functions and attributes of the application and is not meant to limit the scope of the disclosure to the described social media network platform. While the application describes specific processes that are common to particular platforms, such as Facebook®, Google+®, or Twitter®, some functions or features of the application flow will be different from one platform to another. The application flow can be described in terms of two flows: an administrative flow, as shown in FIGS. 2 and 5, and a user flow, as shown in FIGS. 26-29.

In an administrative flow embodiment, administrators are able to log onto an administrator home page as shown in FIG. 1. This page is unavailable to the general public. Access to the administrator home page is granted by the company administering the application. The administrator home displays a list of contests that are saved on the application. The list includes active contests, expired contests, or contests that are scheduled to begin in the future. A contest remains saved on the application and displayed on the administrator home page until deleted by an administrator. An administrator may start a new contest or may navigate to an edit page or an analytics page for each of the saved contests. The company can also provide clients with a sub-administrator access to the application. Sub-administrators are able to view analytics pages for contests that they were given permission to see. Sub-administrators may also be given full, limited, or no ability to start new contests or make changes to existing contests. Sub-administrator access permissions may be altered at any time to suit the needs of the company.

When a contest is started, specific data regarding the contest is entered by an administrator and/or sub-administrator into the application's new contest page as shown in FIGS. 2A and 2B. This data includes graphics, information regarding prizes that contestants will compete for, coupon codes, rules, start and end times, and any other pertinent information regarding the contest. When the information is saved, the contest becomes accessible to users on the application for the time period designated by the administrator. The administrator is also able to edit any of the contest details at any time during the contest from the same page by clicking the edit button on the analytics page.

While the contest is active and after the contest expires, administrators and sub-administrators are able to view a variety of contest metrics on the analytics page as shown in FIG. 3. Each contest has its own individual analytics page that contains data on the number of advocates created, page views, likes, shares, clicks on shares, invites, clicks on share links, clicks on coupon links, and emails gathered to share with the sponsoring entity. Some of the statistics are further broken down into subcategories. Page views are displayed as a number of views from the application's home page, start page, join page, and share page and as an aggregate number thereof. The page views may also display a breakdown of which social media network platform is associated with users. Likes are displayed as a number of likes from referrals, non-referrals, and referrals via share links and as an aggregate number thereof. Shares are displayed as a number of shares to Facebook®, Twitter®, email, and as an aggregate number thereof. Clicks on shares are displayed in the same way as shares. The analytics page displays the total number of red flagged-users that the application flagged as being potentially fraudulent in the contest. The analytics page also contains a list of the top advocates in the contest. The list includes, but is not limited to: name/identification of the user who started the advocate, his or her tally, and the number of red-flagged users in that advocate. This data allows administrators to analyze user behavior and to determine the success of the contest. Analytics data is also used by the company administering the application, for example, in cost per fan or cost per connection billing. For a contest that obligates a client to compensate the company on a cost per fan basis, the analytics page allows both the client and the company to track campaign costs during the contest and to deduce total costs when the contest expires. This tracking of payment may be used with other billing models.

Once a contest starts, the company advertises the new contest to its audience. For example, the company advertises contests to contacts on various social media networks and via user email lists as shown in FIG. 30. An administrator from the company copies the share link from the administrator edit page that displays the link and includes the share link in advertising communications sent by the company. These communications are in any form that the company sees fit to employ. A recipient of the advertising communications clicks on the share link and is directed to the contest index page. The click is tracked on the contest's analytics page.

In a user flow embodiment, current or potential users are alerted to new contests through a variety of methods, including, for example, email as shown in FIG. 30, social media network notifications (e.g., Facebook® posts, Twitter® feeds, Facebook® advertising), search engine advertising, and blog posts. The alerts are made by, but are not limited to, the company and the clients. The user flow can be described in terms of two flows: contestant or non-referral user flow, as shown in FIGS. 26-28, and referral user flow, as shown in FIG. 29. A non-referral user is a contestant who has navigated to the application without being referred by another contestant via an advocate share link. A user who has navigated to the application via a contest link is also referred to as a non-referral user.

In a non-referral user flow embodiment, announcements of new contests link a user to a contest index page within the application on blank page (e.g., a canvas page), as shown in FIGS. 4 and 30, or in a menu item (e.g., a tab) of a social media network fan page associated with the contest, as shown in FIG. 5. The contest index page displays the prize details and rules of the contest and contains a like box, which allows a user to begin the process of starting an advocate for the contest. The user is prompted to “like” the designated fan page associated with the particular contest. “Liking” in the context of a social media network, such as Facebook®, is associated with a user clicking a displayed like button. Once the like is executed or validated, a “start an advocate” button, terms and conditions, and contest rules are displayed to the user as shown in FIGS. 6, 7, 21, and 22. In an embodiment, the user is also provided an opportunity to opt-in an email mailing list. The opt-in button is displayed as a check box under the “start an advocate button” and allows the user to sign-up to the sponsoring entity's email list as shown in FIG. 6. The names and email addresses of users who check the opt-in box are saved in the application database and presented to the client at the expiration of the contest.

Once the user clicks the “start an advocate button,” a standard social media network request for permission dialog box is displayed to a new user who has not previously used the application as shown in FIG. 8. The permission dialog box prompts the user to decide whether to allow the application to access personal information from the user's social media network profile, including access to the user's profile picture, name, user identification, gender, and list of friends and permission to send future emails to the user and friends. The collected email addresses are used to announce new contests to the users. When the user clicks the allow button, the application accesses the user's personal information and completes the registration process. The application does not again prompt the user to authorize access to the personal information unless, in the future, the user removes the application from his or her social media network profile settings or when the application requires access to the information for verification of the user's registration status and/or for miscellaneous tracking purposes. The application captures and stores the data in a database accessible by the company, the company's agents, or any entity assigned access. The application processes the stored personal information to inform users of future contests and to analyze past contest and associated campaigns.

Once the application is allowed to access the personal information, the application prompts the user to share his or her advocate with friends and/or any other contacts. A social media network “post to your wall” dialog box is displayed and comprises prepopulated text that was entered by the administrator during the contest setup as shown in FIG. 9. The dialog box allows the user to post a link of the advocate and a share link thereof on his or her social media network wall. The post is displayed on the news feeds of the user's social media network friends as shown in FIG. 10. The application prompts a second dialog box that allows the user to send invitations with the share link to friends and contacts for joining the advocate as shown in FIG. 11.

The application also directs the user to the application's share page as shown in FIGS. 12A, 12B, and 13. The share page is customized to the individual advocate and displays, for example, the time left in the contest, the user's ranking in the contest, and a face pile—a collection of profile pictures of the user's social media network friends who have joined the advocate. The share page also includes prompts for the user to invite friends to the advocate. The invitation comprises a social media network link such as a Facebook® link that opens the “post to your wall” and “invite friends” dialog boxes, a Twitter® link that opens a “what is happening” Twitter® dialog box as shown in FIG. 14, or an email link that opens a prewritten email message prompting the recipient to join the sender's advocate as shown in FIGS. 15 and 16. A share link is included in the sharing tools from this share page. The share link identifies the advocate and directs any referral user who clicks on the link to the advocate. An online coupon code is also used as another incentive to participate and is displayed on the share page. When the user likes the sponsoring entity's social media network fan page and starts an advocate, the application rewards the user with a coupon code for a product or service provided by the sponsoring entity and/or the company administering the application. The application creates a coupon link for one of or all of the contests. The application directs the user to an external website of the sponsoring entity's choosing when the coupon is clicked over. The click on the coupon is counted in the analytics page.

In a referral user flow embodiment, a recruit who joins an existing advocate begins using the application in the referral user flow. A user who is recruited by a non-referral user is considered a referral user. A recruit is directed to the application via the share link uniquely assigned to the advocate. When the non-referral user shares the advocate as described above, the share link can be distributed by any platform on the Internet including but not limited to Facebook®, Twitter®, and email. The application tracks a user connecting to the application via the share link and gives credit to the recruiting user, i.e., the contestant or non-referral user whose advocate is associated with the share link.

When a referral user or recruit follows a share link, the application directs him or her to the contestant's advocate referral page as shown in FIG. 17. The recruit is prompted to like the social media network fan page associated with the contest in order to help the contestant win the contest. If the recruit social media network likes the page (e.g., connects to the page), the application prompts the recruit to join the contestant's advocate as shown in FIG. 18. Upon joining the advocate, the application credits the recruiting user's or contestant's advocate with a point or a score to his or her tally for the particular contest. The tally for the advocate is used to determine the contestant's rank in the contest while the contest is active and to determine the winner(s) once the contest expires. The application stores all points, calculates users' rankings relative to other contestants, and displays the rankings during the contest to encourage additional activities and sharing as shown in FIGS. 12A and 20.

After joining the advocate, the application prompts the referral user to start his or her advocate for the contest by taking a designated action, such as a click on a start an advocate button. Once this action is taken, the application identifies the referral user as a recruiting user. The application provides the recruiting user with the opportunity to agree to the contest's terms and conditions and to start the new advocate. The application follows a similar flow to the non-referral user flow to process actions from and return services to the recruiting user.

In an embodiment, users accessing the application within an application tab on a company's social media network page or from a canvas are able to view either a single featured contest of the company's choice or all available contests, including descriptions of contest prizes on the application index page as shown in FIG. 19. A contest description includes a countdown, for example a clock or a timer, indicating the remaining duration of the contest and a button prompting a user to start an advocate. When the user clicks the button, the application directs the user to the contest index page, starting the non-referral user flow.

In a further embodiment, a user who returns to the application index page after entering a contest is shown a list of his or her advocates as depicted in FIG. 20. In an example, the advocates are listed under an advocate category. The user enters the advocate share page from the list in order to invite additional contacts to join the advocates. The link to the advocate also displays the current tally ranking, which encourages the user to increase his or her sharing and participation. The user also returns to the share page to retrieve the coupon code. In other words, the application continually directs users to their advocate share pages, which encourages sharing as much as possible.

The user flow for accessing the contest index page from the tab on a social media network fan page is similar to the flow for accessing the contest index page from a canvas page. In the social media network fan page, the application interface is displayed in a slightly smaller frame when loaded to the tab. As explained above, the application and the interface thereto can be embedded on any platform in addition to the illustrated screen shots.

In an embodiment, while tracking the number of joins or referrals for the purpose of awarding a contest winner, the application tracks several other metrics that can be used in a billing system associated with the company that administers the application. The company uses the metrics to employ several unique billing models.

In an embodiment, the company can bill clients of the application, such as the sponsoring entities associated with the contests, on a cost per social connection (CPSC) basis. CPSC can also be referred to as cost per fan (CPF) when the application tracks connections on the social media network platform, such as the Facebook® platform. As described herein, tracking connections is not limited to Facebook®. The company can charge a specific amount for each new connection. This CPF billing capability is unique to the application. The application's tracking allows for a uniquely accurate CPSC. When the application tracks connections on the social media network, the company may charge on an accurate CPF basis.

In another embodiment and as described above, the application tracks the number of recruits and/or referrals who join an advocate. This metric is not only used for awarding a winner for a specific contest, but is also used by the company as a cost per recruit (CPR) billing model. As no other contest application employs the same recruitment based model for determining the contest winner, the CPR billing model is also unique to the application.

In yet another embodiment and as described above, to participate in a contest or advocate, the application requires a user to register. For each contest, the application tracks the number of newly registered users. The company is able to charge the clients on a cost per application user (CPAU).

In an embodiment, the application tracks the number of users that are directed to the application via unique share links managed by the company as shown in FIGS. 2C and 30. This data allows the company to charge on a cost per visitor referred (CPVR) basis, in which the clients are charged based on the number of users who visit the application via the share links or based on the number of users who also make a connection with the sponsoring entities.

In a further embodiment, the application tracks the number of users who are directed from the application to an external site associated with the sponsoring entity. For example and as shown in FIGS. 2C and 12B, the application embeds within a user's page a coupon-like link address to a website of selected by the sponsoring entity. The company can charge the clients on a cost per coupon click (CPCC) basis, in which the clients are charged based on the number of users who are directed to the external site via the coupon link. The company may also use the coupon link to track and charge clients on an affiliate basis for the resulting sales originating from this link to their products or services.

In another embodiment, the application acquires email addresses of users through an email mailing list opt-in button. The opt-in button can specify the use of the acquired email addresses, which includes, for example, providing the addresses to the sponsoring entity of the contest. This allows the company to charge clients on a cost per email acquisition (CPEA) basis. CPEA can function as a supplementary billing structure, in which the clients are charged per email acquired beyond any additional costs accrued through other billing models.

FIG. 31 depicts an example computing system wherein aspects of the present disclosure can be implemented. For example, the computing system 100 may be a computing device wherein users can interface with the application. In another example, the computing system 100 may be a server wherein the application is hosted. In a basic configuration, the computing system 100 may include at least a processor 102, a system memory 104, a storage device 106, input/output peripherals 108, communication peripherals 110, and an interface bus 112. The interface bus 112 is configured to communicate, transmit, and transfer data, controls, and commands between the various components of the computing system 100. The system memory 104 and the storage device 106 comprise computer readable storage media, such as RAM, ROM, EEPROM, hard-drives, CD-ROMs, optical storage devices, magnetic storage devices, flash memory, and other tangible storage media. Any of such computer readable storage medium can be configured to store instructions or program codes embodying aspects of the disclosure. Additionally, the system memory 104 comprises an operation system and applications. The processor 102 is configured to execute the stored instructions and can comprise, for example, a logical processing unit, a microprocessor, a digital signal processor, and the like.

Further, the input and output peripherals 108 include user interfaces such as a keyboard, screen, microphone, speaker, other input/output devices, and computing components such as digital-to-analog and analog-to-digital converters, graphical processing units, serial ports, parallel ports, and universal serial bus. The input/output peripherals may be connected to the processor 102 through any of the ports coupled to the interface bus 112. Finally, the communication peripherals 110 are configured to facilitate communication between the computing system 100 and other computing devices over a communications network. The communication peripherals 110 include, for example, a network interface controller, modem, various modulators/demodulators and encoders/decoders, wireless and wired interface cards, antenna, and the like.

To understand aspects of the disclosure and without limiting the disclosure as such, the following paragraphs provide definitions of certain terms used herein.

“Application”—Software that is designed to be loaded and used within a specific context, including but not limited to specific websites, specific computer operating systems, and specific computing hardware.

“Contact”—In terms of a social media network - all of the social media network users that a given social media network user has a connection with. These connections allow the users to communicate with one another electronically, as well as share information and digital media. A user typically invites another user to become a contact and that invitation is accepted. Contact may also refer to more traditional forms of one-to-one connections between two people, including possession of one another's addresses, email addresses, or telephone numbers.

Contest Application Submission (“Submission”)—A required submission of a photo, video, essay, link or some other type of content that can be judged to determine the winner of the contest.

“Judging the Submission”—The process of determining the winner of a contest. Judging is often based on the number of shares or votes from other user or by the determination of an expert panel of some qualification.

“Google+®”—A social network that is owned and operated by Google®.

“Social Media”—Web based and mobile tools that allow social interaction, the sharing of information, and the creation of communities through online networks of people including the creation and sharing of user-generated content. Social media involves many different outlets, including: collaborative projects (e.g., Wikipedia®), blogs and microblogs (e.g., Twitter®), content communities (e.g., YouTube®), social networking sites (e.g., Facebook®), virtual game worlds (e.g., World of Warcraft®), and virtual social worlds (e.g., Second Life®). Social media involves the interplay of many technologies (e.g., email, blogs, video, pictures, instant messaging, etc.).

“Social Media User Account”—A unique account created by an individual on a social media network. This account allows the individual to gain access to the social media network as well as to the application, which may be accessed from the social media network.

“Social Media Network Page”—A unique webpage on a social media network that is associated with and controlled by a social media user account. Users typically have the ability to make connections with other social media network pages or users, create and distribute information or other content, or communicate from these pages.

BandWagon Application (“BW App”)—The application described above and includes user interfaces, administrator and operation functions, payment processes, and all other unique attributes connected to the application and the business model. The BW App is software designed to facilitate contests on the Internet. The BW App is accessed via various webpages on the Internet.

BandWagon App User (“BW App User” or “Contestant”)—Any individual person who uses the BW App for the purposes of participating in a contest.

“Connection”—Any method by which a new communication channel is established or subscribed to between a BW app user, referral user, or non-referral user and a sponsoring entity of a Contest. These communication channels are typically web based and include, but not limited to, Facebook® Likes, Twitter® Follows, or emails. More traditional communication channels include, but are not limited to, phone numbers or addresses.

“Share”—Any method by which a contestant communicates the existence of his or her advocate to referrals or recruits. Typically, these communications occur via the Internet (e.g., social networking sites, email, and instant messaging) but may also include tradition modes of communication (e.g., word of mouth, and writing).

“Advocate Share Link”—The BW App assigns every advocate a unique, trackable URL. Contestants share their share links through a variety of different communication methods. Referral users who click on the advocate share link are directed to the referral page of the advocate associated with that link. The BW App uses the advocate share links to track the number of referrals a contestant recruits to his or advocate.

“Contest Share Link”—The BW App assigns every contest a unique, trackable URL that can be used by the company administering the BW App to direct non-referral users to specific contests. The company can share the contest share link through a variety of different communication methods. The BW App uses this contest share link to track the number of users the company was able to direct to a specific contest via the used communication channels.

“Coupon Link”—The BW App can assign every contest a unique, trackable URL that directs users from a specific coupon to an external website associated with a sponsoring entity. The BW App tracks the number of users that visit the sponsoring entity's external site via a share page of the contest. The BW App also uses this link to track sales and create an affiliate program with the sponsoring entity.

“Application Registration”—The process that a contestant follows to register and use the BW App. This process varies depending on the platform in which the BW App is accessed (e.g., from a website, on Twitter®, on Facebook®, etc.). Registration creates an entry for the contestant in the BW App database recording information about the contestant. The specific information captured about each contestant varies from one contest to another depending on, but not limited to, requirements of a client, allowances granted by the contestant, allowances granted by the platform or network on which the BW App is accessed, and any regulatory privacy requirements.

“Start BandWagon”—The process in which a contestant enters a specific contest. A unique advocate is created for that contestant and for that contest. A contestant creates an advocate in order to share the associated contest with recruits. The Start BandWagon action usually involves the contestant clicking on the “Start Your BandWagon” button within the BW App but may be designated by another action depending on the platform.

Join the Advocate BW (“Join the Advocate BW”, “Join”)—The process in which a referral user becomes a recruit to another contestant's advocate by clicking on the “join” button on the referral page of the BW App. Every join is counted in the BW App database. The application tracks the joins to determine the size of the advocate and ultimately to determine the winner(s) of the contest.

“Tally”—The number of recruits that join a contestant's advocate.

“Tally Ranking”—The ranking of contestants relative to one another, at the expiration of a contest, based on the tally of their advocates. Contestants are ranked in first, second, third, etc. with higher tally rankings given to the users with higher tallies. Prizes are awarded based upon tally ranking.

“Grand Prize”—The highest prize level, awarded to one or more contestants at the expiration of a contest. Contestants with the highest tally ranking are awarded the grand prize.

“Secondary Prize”—Any prize that is awarded to a contestant who has a lower tally ranking than the winner of the grand prize in a contest. The client determines whether to award secondary prizes and/or the amount of secondary prizes awarded.

“General Prize”—A prize that is awarded to all contestants who create an advocate for a contest.

“Contest Expiration”—The time and date in which a contest ends. The contest expiration is determined prior to starting a contest. Countdown clocks, displayed on the application's index page and the user's share pages, provide a countdown to the contest expiration. After a contest expires, winners are chosen based on the size of users' advocates. A contest may expire at any time if a maximum number of prizes and/or coupons are distributed.

Cost Per Social Connection™ (“CPSC”)—The method by which the company administering the application bills clients for services rendered. The application tracks all new connections between contestants and sponsoring entities. The client is billed at a contractually agreed upon rate for each connection the contest was able to generate for the sponsoring entity. Clients under CPSC contract may not be charged on a per campaign basis, but rather a set cost for each connection generated, plus any agreed upon additional fees. The company reserves the right to charge clients on a per campaign basis or any other method.

Cost Per Recruit™ (“CPR”)—The method by which the company administering the application bills clients for services rendered. The application tracks all new recruits who join other contestants' advocates. The client is billed at a contractually agreed upon rate for each join that occurs during a contest. Clients under CPR contract may not be charged on a per campaign basis, but rather a set cost for each join that occurs, plus any agreed upon additional fees. The company reserves the right to charge clients on a per campaign basis or any other method.

Cost Per App User™ (“CPAU”)—The method by which the company administering the application bills clients for services rendered. The application tracks all new contestants who register to use the application to participate in a contest. The client is billed at a contractually agreed upon rate for each new contestant who registers during a contest. Clients under CPAU contract may not be charged on a per campaign basis, but rather a set cost for each new contestant, plus any agreed upon additional fees. The company reserves the right to charge clients on a per campaign basis or any other method.

Cost Per Visitor Referred™ (“CPVR”)—The method by which the company administering the application charges clients for services rendered. The application tracks all visitors who were directed to the application via the unique share links. Clients under contract to pay on a CPVR basis may be charged for each new visitor to the application via the unique share links or for each new visitor to the application via the unique share links who starts an advocate or makes a connection with the sponsoring entity. The company reserves the right to charge clients on a per campaign basis or any other method.

Cost Per Coupon Click™ (“CPCC”)—The method by which the company administering the application charges clients for services rendered. The application tracks all contestants who were directed from the application to an external site of the sponsoring entity's choosing via the unique coupon link. Clients under contract to pay on a CPCC basis may be charged for each contestant that is directed to the external site of the sponsoring entity's choosing via the unique coupon link. The client may also be charged on an affiliate business as a percentage of sales related to this link. The company reserves the right to charge clients on a per campaign basis or any other method.

Cost Per Email Acquisition™ (“CPEA”)—The method by which the company administering the application charges clients for services rendered. The application has the ability to allow users to “opt-in” to the sponsoring entity's email mailing list. Clients under contract to pay on a CPEA basis will be charged for each email address that is acquired by the application. The company reserves the right to charge clients on a per campaign basis or any other method.

Cost Per Fan™ (“CPF”)—The method by which the company administering the application charges clients for services rendered. The application tracks all new likes for a sponsoring entity's social media fan page. The client is billed at a contractually agreed upon rate for each fan the contest was able to generate for the fan page. Clients under contract to pay on a Cost Per Fan Basis are not charged on a per campaign basis, but rather a set cost for each fan generated, plus any agreed upon additional fees. The company reserves the right to charge clients on a per campaign basis or any other method. This billing method is similar to the CPSC billing method described above but in the specific context of a social media platform for the application.

“Sponsoring Entity”—Any individual, group, organization, or company that sponsors a contest for the sake of creating connections with users. A sponsoring entity may be different from a client when, for example, the client is an agency hired to represent the sponsoring entity. For the purpose of this disclosure, a client and a sponsoring entity may be interchangeable in some but not all situations.

“Client”—Any entity that pays for the use of the application and/or the related services of the company administering the application. For the purpose of this disclosure, a client and a sponsoring entity may be interchangeable in some but not all situations.

“Contest”—A contest facilitated by and hosted on the application. Winner(s) of the contest are determined by the ability of a user to recruit the most number of users to his or her advocate for each contest. Recruited users are required to first like the sponsoring entity in order to join a referring user's advocate.

“Company”—The legal entity or entities that own(s) and controls all operations of the application and all affiliated business.

“Advocate”—An advocate is each user's entry into a contest. A contestant has an advocate for each contest that the user participates in. The advocate is credited a point for every recruit that makes a connection to the sponsoring entity.

“Flow”—The process by which administrators, clients, contestants, referral users, and recruits interface with the application. This involves any activities or actions performed by any of the above mentioned users while using the application. Flow also refers to the transmission of information within the application, to the application from external sources, or to external sources from the application. The screen shots and diagrams described in the figures attempt to give a comprehensive overview of the flow but may not include all aspects thereof and this flow may develop over time to accommodate new technologies or business needs.

“Non-Referral User Flow”—Similar to flow, except that this process describes the activities of contestants who use the application without having been first recruited by another contestant. Contestants in the non-referral user flow are non-referral users.

“Referral User Flow”—Similar to flow, except that this process describes the activities of recruits who have navigated to the application via advocate share links. Contestants in the referral user flow are referral users.

“Non-Referral User”—An individual who is using the application without first having been referred to the application by another contestant via an advocate share link. Even when the individual is referred by the company, the sponsoring entity, the client, or any other entity or communication that is not a contestant, the individual is still referred to as a non-referral user.

“Referral User”—An individual or recruit who has navigated to the application via an advocate share link.

“Recruit”—Any individual person who has been solicited by a contestant for the purpose of joining that user's advocate. Recruits are recruited through the share process.

“Referral Page”—A page within the application that referral users are directed to via an advocate share link. This page prompts referral users to make a connection with the sponsoring entity and join the referring BW app user's Advocate. This page is unique to each contest and each advocate.

“Share Page”—A page within the application where a user is able to view his or her current ranking in a contest and share his or her advocate with others—making every share page unique to each user and his or her specific advocate. A user may have access to as many share pages as the number of contests that the user has entered in and has created an advocate for. The share page contains links that allow the user to share his or her advocate via a social media network, email, or any other media. The share page also displays a coupon and/or coupon code for a product or service that is presented to all users who start an advocate and/or make a connection with the sponsoring entity.

“Administrator”—An individual who is given the necessary access and permissions to use the administrative interface of the application. An administrator is typically an employee, agent, or contractor of the company. Administrators have the ability to start, edit, and cancel all contests using the administrative interface. Administrators have access to all contests hosted on the application as well as analytics for those contests.

“Sub-Administrator”—An individual who is given some form of limited access as an administrator but maybe given broader control depending on the contract or agreement between the company and the client or sponsoring entity. A sub-administrator's access may include the ability to start, edit, and cancel contests and/or view various levels of analytics.

“Application Index”—A page within the application that is tailored to an individual contestant to show thereto the contests that he or she has entered and the active contests that the user has yet to enter. Contestants are able to enter share pages for contests that they have already entered or start advocates for contests that they have yet to enter.

“Contest Index”—A page within the application that displays prize details for a contest, a link to make a connection (e.g., a social media like box), and contest rules. This page is where app users begin the process of starting an advocate. Contestants navigating to the contest index are directed to the share page if they have already created an advocate for that particular contest.

“Facebook®” (FB)—The social media network and website.

Facebook® Platform (“Facebook®”)—The code infrastructure of the social media website. The platform allows developers to create and load new applications to the website to be accessed by Facebook® users from Facebook®.

Facebook® Users (“FB Users”)—Any person engaging with Facebook® as defined above.

Facebook® Fan Page (“Fan Page”)—Any page, presence, and/or application hosted on the Facebook® platform as defined above. This includes fan pages of people, business, and all other entities that exist on Facebook®.

Facebook® Like (“FB Like”)—A method for FB users to broadcast content to their social network and/or to volunteer to receive content from the fan page administrator. In Facebook® parlance, to “like” a company is a verb describing a FB user's act of clicking a Facebook® like icon.

Facebook® Fan (“FB Fan”)—Once a FB user completes the FB like for a fan page, the user becomes a FB fan of that particular fan page until some action is taken to rescind the FB like.

Facebook® Share (“FB Share”)—FB share is similar to FB like in that both are methods for FB users to broadcast content to their social network and/or to volunteer to receive content from the fan page administrator. In Facebook® parlance, FB share can also be referred to as a “like”. However, the FB user's act of clicking a Facebook® like icon only shares the particular content referenced (e.g., links, articles, photos, video, etc.) and not a fan page in general.

Fan Page Administrators (“FB Administrator”)—The company, organization, person, group of persons, or any other entity that controls the administration and/or utilizes a fan page.

Facebook® Authentication (“FB Allow”)—The process of allowing an application to pull information from a FB user account and/or authenticating and tracking a FB user with the tools provided by Facebook®. This is a similar process as an application registration but in the specific context of Facebook®.

Facebook® Application (“FB App”)—A web application or a stand-alone piece of software that is designed to be loaded in the context of Facebook.com. FB Apps can integrate with many aspects and functions of Facebook including news feed, notifications, and social plugins. FB Apps can be accessed from various parts of Facebook® including a canvas page that the FB App is loaded to and tabs within user and fan pages. FB Apps are loaded to and accessed from Facebook but are hosted externally.

“News Feed”—A list of updates on a FB user's FB home page. A news feed shows the activities of the FB user's FB friends and organizations or companies that he or she is a fan of Activities can include FB shares, status updates, photo and video uploads, announcement of a FB user's new FB like, and announcement of a FB user's activities on a FB App.

“Notifications”—A list on a FB user's Facebook® page that alerts the user when other FB users take actions related to him or her. Notifications include invitations to use a FB App, friend requests, event invitations, etc.

“Canvas Page”—A blank page within Facebook.com where developers can load and run a FB App within the context of Facebook®.

“Tab”—Menu on a user's Facebook® page that allows the user to navigate to allowed subpages and Apps.

Facebook® Contests (“FB Contests”)—Contests facilitated by and hosted on a FB App in the context of Facebook. Contests require a FB App submission for the sake of contest entry. The winner of the contest is determined by judging the submission. Voting in FB Apps is typically tallied by using FB likes for app submissions.

Facebook® Like Box (“FB Like Box”)—Part of the application in which a FB like button is embedded. Users who click the like button in the FB like box like the client who has sponsored the specific contest. The application is like-gated meaning that a user is unable to participate in an advocate.

Sections may be embodied in, and fully or partially automated by, code modules executed by one or more computers or computer processors. The code modules may be stored on any type of non-transitory computer-readable medium or computer storage device, such as hard drives, solid state memory, optical disc, and/or the like. The processes and algorithms may be implemented partially or wholly in application-specific circuitry. The results of the disclosed processes and process steps may be stored, persistently or otherwise, in any type of non-transitory computer storage such as, e.g., volatile or non-volatile storage.

The various features and processes described above may be used independently of one another, or may be combined in various ways. All possible combinations and subcombinations are intended to fall within the scope of this disclosure. In addition, certain method or process blocks may be omitted in some implementations. The methods and processes described herein are also not limited to any particular sequence, and the blocks or states relating thereto can be performed in other sequences that are appropriate. For example, described blocks or states may be performed in an order other than that specifically disclosed, or multiple blocks or states may be combined in a single block or state. The example blocks or states may be performed in serial, in parallel, or in some other manner. Blocks or states may be added to or removed from the disclosed example embodiments. The example systems and components described herein may be configured differently than described. For example, elements may be added to, removed from, or rearranged compared to the disclosed example embodiments.

Conditional language used herein, such as, among others, “can,” “could,” “might,” “may,” “e.g.,” and the like, unless specifically stated otherwise, or otherwise understood within the context as used, is generally intended to convey that certain embodiments include, while other embodiments do not include, certain features, elements, and/or steps. Thus, such conditional language is not generally intended to imply that features, elements and/or steps are in any way required for one or more embodiments or that one or more embodiments necessarily include logic for deciding, with or without author input or prompting, whether these features, elements and/or steps are included or are to be performed in any particular embodiment. The terms “comprising,” “including,” “having,” and the like are synonymous and are used inclusively, in an open-ended fashion, and do not exclude additional elements, features, acts, operations, and so forth. Also, the term “or” is used in its inclusive sense (and not in its exclusive sense) so that when used, for example, to connect a list of elements, the term “or” means one, some, or all of the elements in the list.

While certain example embodiments have been described, these embodiments have been presented by way of example only, and are not intended to limit the scope of the inventions disclosed herein. Thus, nothing in the foregoing description is intended to imply that any particular feature, characteristic, step, module, or block is necessary or indispensable. Indeed, the novel methods and systems described herein may be embodied in a variety of other forms; furthermore, various omissions, substitutions and changes in the form of the methods and systems described herein may be made without departing from the spirit of the inventions disclosed herein. The accompanying claims and their equivalents are intended to cover such forms or modifications as would fall within the scope and spirit of certain of the inventions disclosed herein. 

What is claimed:
 1. A system for facilitating online connections, the system comprising: a processor; a memory coupled to the processor, the memory having stored thereon instructions that, when executed on the processor, cause the processor to: initiate an online contest; receive first inputs generated at a remote computing device, the first inputs being associated with a first contestant account and directed to the online contest; process the received first inputs to: generate a first link uniquely associated with the first contestant account and the online contest; and share the first link with a supporter account; receive second inputs generated at a remote computing device, the second inputs being associated with the supporter account and directed to the online contest; process the received second inputs to determine that the supporter account connected to the online contest based on the first link; determine a first score associated with the first link, the first score being derived from a number of supporter accounts determined to have connected to the online contest based on the first link; compare the first score to a second score associated with a second link, the second link being uniquely associated with a second contestant account and the online contest; and declare the first contestant account as a winner of the online contest based on the comparison.
 2. The system of claim 1, wherein the first and second inputs are received via interfaces executed within a social media network, and wherein the first contestant account and the supporter account are associated with user accounts of the social media network.
 3. The system of claim 2, wherein determining that the supporter account connected to the online contest based on the first link comprises receiving an input indicative of an activation on a graphic object associated with the first link.
 4. The system of claim 1, wherein the first link is a web link to a web page unique to the first contestant account and the online contest, and wherein determining that the supporter account connected to the online contest based on the first link comprises receiving an input indicating that the supporter account utilized the web link to connect to the web page.
 5. The system of claim 1, wherein the memory further comprises instructions, that when executed on the processor, cause the processor to register and authenticate the first contestant account and the supporter account.
 6. The system of claim 5, wherein authenticating an account comprises determining that the number of contacts associated with the account is greater than a predefined threshold.
 7. The system of claim 1, wherein the first inputs comprise an authorization to collect personal information associated with the contestant account, and wherein sharing the first link with the supporter account is based on the collected personal information.
 8. The system of claim 1, wherein the online contest is associated with a sponsoring entity, wherein processing the first inputs comprises associating the first contestant account with the sponsoring entity, and wherein processing the second inputs comprises associating the supporter account with the sponsoring entity.
 9. The system of claim 8, wherein the first and second contestant accounts are awarded general prizes for participating in the online contest, and wherein declaring the first contestant account as a winner further comprises awarding the first contestant account a grand prize and the second contestant account a secondary prize, wherein the general prize, the secondary prize, and the grand prize are predefined by the sponsoring entity.
 10. The system of claim 8, wherein the memory further comprises instructions, that when executed on the processor, cause the processor to provide services to the sponsoring entity based on the number of contestant and supporter accounts associated with the sponsoring entity and based on collected personal information associated with the contestant and supporter accounts.
 11. The system of claim 1, wherein processing the first inputs further comprises denying a request associated with the first contestant account to connect to the first link, and wherein processing the second inputs comprises denying a request associated with the supporter account to reconnect to the first link.
 12. The system of claim 1, wherein processing the second inputs further comprises associating the supporter account with a third link uniquely associated with the supporter account and the online contest and updating the score of the first link based on the third link.
 13. A method for participating in an online contest, the method executed on a computing device and comprising: rendering an interface to an application hosted on a server; connecting to an online contest hosted by the application, the connection being associated with a user account; receiving an identifier from the application, the identifier being based on the user account and the online contest sharing the received identifier with contacts associated with the user account; and receiving a tally from the application indicating a rank of the user account in the online contest, the rank being based on a number of contacts that confirmed the identifier.
 14. The method of claim 13, wherein the interface is executed within a social media network platform, wherein the received identifier is associated with an identifier account hosted by the application, and wherein the identifier is displayed as a graphic object configured to connect a user account to the identifier account when the graphic object is selected.
 15. The method of claim 13 further comprising displaying a list of contests that the user account is connected to, a tally for each contest, a list of contacts that have confirmed the identifier, an expiration time of each contest, and a list of contests available for the user account to participate in.
 16. The method of claim 13 further comprising determining that the user account is a winner of the online contest based on a comparison of the tally with tallies of other user accounts participating in the contest, and receiving a prize based on the determination.
 17. The method of claim 13 further comprising registering the user account with the application and utilizing the registration and the identifier to navigate to pages associated with the online contest and to accept identifiers associated with online contests and other user accounts.
 18. A computer-readable storage medium having stored thereon instructions that, when executed on a processor, cause the processor to execute an online contest, the instructions comprising instructions to: associate a sponsoring entity with an online contest, the association comprising an interface configured to allow the sponsoring entity to access the online contest; connect user accounts with the online contest, the user accounts comprising contestant accounts and supporter accounts, the contestant accounts being associated with contestants participating in the online contest and the supporter accounts being associated with supporters joining the online contest; record a connection between a contestant account from the contestant accounts and a supporter account from the supporter accounts when the supporter account joins the online contest based on a connection between the contestant account and the online contest; and provide information to the sponsoring entity based on the connections with the online contest and the connections between the contestant account and the supporter account.
 19. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 18, wherein the interface is configured to allow the sponsoring entity to create the contest, set-up parameters associated with the contest including contest duration, rules, and prizes, and monitor analytics and fraudulent activities associated with the online contest.
 20. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 18, wherein the interface is configured to allow the sponsoring entity to receive analytics associated with the contest and services based on the analytics, wherein the analytics comprise a number of contestants, a number of supporters, a number of user accounts registered with the application, a number of users connected to the online contest, a number of users directed from the online contest to a website associated with the sponsoring entity, and contact information of users associated with the online contest.
 21. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 20, wherein the analytics allow the sponsoring company to provide billing services comprising at least one of cost per social connection, cost per recruit, cost per application user, cost per visitor referred, cost per coupon link, cost per e-mail acquisition, and cost per fan billing models. 